These are a bunch of random thoughts that have been floating around my head but I haven’t had a chance to comment on yet:
1. Devin Hester. He’s pretty darn impressive to watch and has a legitimate claim to the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award. But when I found out that he and Deion Sanders formed an off-field relationship as mentor/mentee, I decided to write Hester off as a flashy punk, just like Sanders was. I hate everything that Deion Sanders represents and I think he’s one of the biggest scumbags to ever play the game of football. Deion was a braggart, a thug who hid behind a false veil of piety that never jibed with his ostentatious lifestyle and mannerisms. In other words, he taught Ray Lewis everything he knows...
2. Bud Selig. A few weeks ago, Selig announced that he was stepping down as commissioner of baseball after his term expires, in three years’ time. Bud, unless you’re a former President of the United States with a debilitating disease that robs you of your faculties, you don’t need to give us the “Long Goodbye.” We’re not going to miss you and we don’t think that highly of you (nor should you of yourself) that you should so grace us with such a self-important announcement. Give me a break. The only question now is who the Communist Bloc of owners (Reinsdorf, Pohlad, Henry, and Loria) will appoint as their next marionette and if they will use the next three years as a grooming period to emasculate Selig’s replacement as Selig himself was emasculated.
3. NFL Network. I touched upon this in my comments to Hitman’s most recent column but I think it bears mentioning again. The NFL Network, from a league and business perspective, was a savvy investment and has the potential to be a long-term asset to the NFL’s bargaining position with its broadcast partners (Fox/CBS/NBC/ESPN). Obviously it’s not working out in the short-term because the four games played on NFLN have been total stinkers and no one is picketing their cable company, screaming “I want my NFL Network!” I think the NFL should adjust their short-term strategy just a little bit. Instead of providing a feed of the game exclusively to the local markets in question, they should expand coverage to the team’s territory of influence. For instance, Saturday night’s match-up between Atlanta and Dallas should be broadcast across all of Georgia and north Texas/Oklahoma. The more fans can watch the games on a limited basis, the more they’ll know what they’re missing. And it never hurts to increase eyeballs on the product. Confining the game to the Dallas Metroplex and local Atlanta markets results in turning off casual, out-of-market Falcons and Cowboys fans and that just doesn’t make any sense.
4. Knickerbockers. In New York, it seems that it’s almost impossible to get a fair shake once the press has turned on you. Now, it’s only mid-December and there’s a whole lot of time left for the season to end in unmitigated disaster, but the Knicks are giving me hope. Sure, part of my hope is predicated on the fact that the Eastern Conference in general, and the Atlantic Division in particular, is especially awful this year. But part of it is by virtue of the fact that – HOLY CRAP! – Isiah is actually an astute judge of basketball talent. David Lee, if you haven’t yet seen him, is one of the smartest players in the NBA right now – a bonafide white Charles Oakley. Quentin Richardson is playing very solid, all-around ball right now. Jared Jeffries is back from injury and is playing the kind of defense that glues together a starting unit. And Eddy Curry, that fat, lazy piece of shit with no heart or work ethic...well, he’s having the best season of his career right now. I know that most people think Isiah’s a terrible GM and there’s some truth to that. But I also think that out of the ashes of some colossal financial and personnel blunders rises a Phoenix of young, scrappy players who are giving their coach 100% effort. They may not be a .500 team just yet but they’re getting there. I might be the only one left on earth that feels this way, but I truly do believe in Isiah Thomas. I think he’s doing a hell of a job for the Knicks right now and he’s not getting nearly enough credit after far too much blame.
Have a good weekend, BSD’ers.
1. Devin Hester. He’s pretty darn impressive to watch and has a legitimate claim to the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award. But when I found out that he and Deion Sanders formed an off-field relationship as mentor/mentee, I decided to write Hester off as a flashy punk, just like Sanders was. I hate everything that Deion Sanders represents and I think he’s one of the biggest scumbags to ever play the game of football. Deion was a braggart, a thug who hid behind a false veil of piety that never jibed with his ostentatious lifestyle and mannerisms. In other words, he taught Ray Lewis everything he knows...
2. Bud Selig. A few weeks ago, Selig announced that he was stepping down as commissioner of baseball after his term expires, in three years’ time. Bud, unless you’re a former President of the United States with a debilitating disease that robs you of your faculties, you don’t need to give us the “Long Goodbye.” We’re not going to miss you and we don’t think that highly of you (nor should you of yourself) that you should so grace us with such a self-important announcement. Give me a break. The only question now is who the Communist Bloc of owners (Reinsdorf, Pohlad, Henry, and Loria) will appoint as their next marionette and if they will use the next three years as a grooming period to emasculate Selig’s replacement as Selig himself was emasculated.
3. NFL Network. I touched upon this in my comments to Hitman’s most recent column but I think it bears mentioning again. The NFL Network, from a league and business perspective, was a savvy investment and has the potential to be a long-term asset to the NFL’s bargaining position with its broadcast partners (Fox/CBS/NBC/ESPN). Obviously it’s not working out in the short-term because the four games played on NFLN have been total stinkers and no one is picketing their cable company, screaming “I want my NFL Network!” I think the NFL should adjust their short-term strategy just a little bit. Instead of providing a feed of the game exclusively to the local markets in question, they should expand coverage to the team’s territory of influence. For instance, Saturday night’s match-up between Atlanta and Dallas should be broadcast across all of Georgia and north Texas/Oklahoma. The more fans can watch the games on a limited basis, the more they’ll know what they’re missing. And it never hurts to increase eyeballs on the product. Confining the game to the Dallas Metroplex and local Atlanta markets results in turning off casual, out-of-market Falcons and Cowboys fans and that just doesn’t make any sense.
4. Knickerbockers. In New York, it seems that it’s almost impossible to get a fair shake once the press has turned on you. Now, it’s only mid-December and there’s a whole lot of time left for the season to end in unmitigated disaster, but the Knicks are giving me hope. Sure, part of my hope is predicated on the fact that the Eastern Conference in general, and the Atlantic Division in particular, is especially awful this year. But part of it is by virtue of the fact that – HOLY CRAP! – Isiah is actually an astute judge of basketball talent. David Lee, if you haven’t yet seen him, is one of the smartest players in the NBA right now – a bonafide white Charles Oakley. Quentin Richardson is playing very solid, all-around ball right now. Jared Jeffries is back from injury and is playing the kind of defense that glues together a starting unit. And Eddy Curry, that fat, lazy piece of shit with no heart or work ethic...well, he’s having the best season of his career right now. I know that most people think Isiah’s a terrible GM and there’s some truth to that. But I also think that out of the ashes of some colossal financial and personnel blunders rises a Phoenix of young, scrappy players who are giving their coach 100% effort. They may not be a .500 team just yet but they’re getting there. I might be the only one left on earth that feels this way, but I truly do believe in Isiah Thomas. I think he’s doing a hell of a job for the Knicks right now and he’s not getting nearly enough credit after far too much blame.
Have a good weekend, BSD’ers.
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